Dan Snow's History Hit - WWII Britain: The Home Guard's Silent Assassins

Episode Date: August 23, 2023

WWII Britain's Home Guard wasn't a bumbling dad's army but in fact included factions of highly trained silent killers and spies hiding out in secret bunkers, caves and safe houses all over the country. The Auxiliary Unit was given a deliberately boring name to disguise the top secret mission they'd been tasked with- if and when the Germans invaded the British Isles, they would have to stop the first waves of soldiers, taking them down as they moved inland, often in brutal and secretive ways. They were locals chosen from and posted around coastal areas who knew the land particularly well and most went to their graves never revealing what they'd been a part of so we're only really just learning about them now.Today, Andy Chatterton and his organisation Coleshill Auxiliary Research Team are mapping the bunkers left by this secretive unit and those used by Special Operations Wireless Operators who were posted in similar areas in the same sorts of hideouts. Many were sealed straight after the war with everything inside, while others have collapsed, revealing their secrets to the outside world. Andy got word there must be some hidden in the New Forest where Dan lives, so for this episode, Dan and Andy are joined by New Forest historian Marc Heighway as they go bunker hunting. The team come across some very promising discoveries...If you've found something you think could be or relate to an Auxiliary bunker, get in touch with Andy and his team at https://www.staybehinds.com/contact-usProduced by Mariana Des Forges and edited by Dougal Patmore.Image Credit: “Parham airfield, Museum of the British Resistance Organisation - Auxiliary unit operational base” by Gaius Cornelius is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.02.0.Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world-renowned historians like Dan Snow, Suzannah Lipscomb, Lucy Worsley, Matt Lewis, Tristan Hughes and more. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code DANSNOW. Download the app or sign up here.We'd love to hear from you! You can email the podcast at [e-mail] can take part in our listener survey here.

Hi everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's History Hit. A couple of months ago I got sent a video of one of the craziest things I've ever seen in my entire life. Someone had purchased a house. At the end of the garden was a small shed. It had a toilet in it, it was like an outhouse, a laundry. Got the loo here. This is fixed in place. You can't lift this up at all unless you trip the release mechanism.

In this video, someone reached out... Which is out here. ...and pulled a lever at the base of this toilet. The whole wooden structure then lifted away from the floor and revealed a ladder leading down into a bunker below. The counterweight system. I'm just going to go down the steps and stairs. The person climbs down the ladder and arrives in the chamber with some desks and cans and papers. Got a hook here, which is part of the release system for the door. Elephant shelter type arrangement.

A couple of tables or a table and a bench. There's actually an air vent below here. Put this down. They then reached into a slide board, pushed another lever... It gives access to the door. And that revealed a secret. And there was a wireless and an escape tunnel. It was a perfectly preserved special operations bunker

from the Second World War. Over here, we've got what was going to be an escape tunnel, but was abandoned. Well, obviously, I want to look into this a bit more. It turns out that there are these special operations bunkers built all over Britain during the war, particularly in the beginning when Britain faced an invasion scare by the Germans, who'd conquered France and the Low Countries in short order in the spring and early summer of 1940. Some of you will have heard of the Auxiliaries.

This was a special unit we've only just really learnt about the existence of. Local men recruited along the east and southern coasts of Britain who were trained to stay behind in the event of a German invasion, to go underground, emerge and carry out acts of sabotage and assassination against the German invaders. Anything to try and slow down that German juggernaut and give British regular forces the chance to counter-attack and drive them into the sea. They were assumed to have a life expectancy of two weeks. They'd either be found, killed, or they'd have to take the cyanide pill they'd been given if the Germans were attacking their position. The story came to me from Andy Chatterton. He's a brilliant historian who dedicates his time to an organisation called the Coles Hill Auxiliary Research Team.

And they look for these bunkers. Most of them are only really discovered when someone falls into one by accident on walking their dog in the woods. Or when a tree falls over and the root system reveals this bunker buried in the ground. I got in touch with Andy and we were chatting and he said to me the area in which I live, an area called the New Forest in southern England, is an area where we know there's going to be bunkers because it was a prime spot for invasion but none have ever been found. It's a gap in his map of the country. So I assembled a crack team. I got Andy to come to the New Forest. I got Mark Hayway. He's a local New Forest historian with a specialization in the Second World War. And I got my trusty podcast

producer, Mariana. This time she wore appropriate footwear. We cut through the dense forest, the thick undergrowth. We came across some giant anthills. We bushwhacked through forests of bracken to see if we could find a bunker for ourselves, looking for the remnants of a top secret unit intended never to be found. And let me tell you, unusually for a podcast like this, we found something. Yes, we did. We crashed through the undergrowth as Andy and Mark told me the incredible story of this elite team of silent assassins who volunteered for what was essentially a suicide mission. A very far cry from the dad's army idea of the Home Guard that we've ended up with. Enjoy.

T-minus 10. The Thomas bomb dropped on Hiroshima. God save the king. No black-white unity till there is first and black unity. Never to go to war with one another again. And lift off, and the shuttle has cleared the tower. Andrew and Mark,

we are here in the beautiful, picturesque, historic village of Bewley. It's a sort of unspoiled 18th century village, but we're not here to talk about that deeper history, we're here to talk about its role, well, the area in the Second World War. Before we go anywhere else, though, talk to me about Beulie.

Where are we now? So at the moment, we're just sat off the high street. Beulie village itself has got a really interesting Second World War history, because if you think about just a short radius of so much going on, Beulie itself was set up as an anti-tank island. There were hidden pillboxes in the village,

some of which still exist today. You can see them, can't you? Well, you can if you know where to look. The Home Guard, there were 60 members of the Home Guard locally. But also you had the spy school, a finishing school for spies for the Special Operations Executive. They were secretly based in houses around Bewley Village as well. There was lots going on. You had Wrens from Exbury. They lived in the hotel we just walked past only moments ago that's where they were billeted there were also free airfields within probably a three mile radius you had RF Bewley, Limington and Needsall Point so there was loads going on including potentially auxiliary units we're talking about today. Set the scene for me you've got the fall of France and Belgium and the Low Countries. Hitler's armies are in northern France,

just across the channel here, 60 miles from the Isle of Wight to Normandy. There was an invasion scare, wasn't there? And how did Britain react? Yeah, a huge invasion scare. And actually, the perception of how Britain reacts is very different to the reality. The perception of Britain in 1940, to my mind,

is essentially Corporal Jones and Dad's army standing on the cliffs with pitchforks. But the reality is there were huge layers of secret civilian defence in place, ready for essentially a suicide roll to slow up the German advance. So the auxiliary units are not about long-term resistance like the French resistance. It's not about kicking the Germans back into the sea necessarily. So that's the army's job. The Germans land on the beaches, the regular army, and the Home Guards, the so-called Dad's Army.

They turn out and they try and drive the Germans back in the sea. So what are these auxiliary units? Exactly. So in France and the Low Country, as the Germans kind of flew through, the spearhead would fly through and then supplies would come up behind them and nothing was stopping that supply chain. The spearhead can't keep going unless it has fuel and ammo and food and supplies. So the auxiliary unit's job is to essentially,

as the Germans entered their area, to simply disappear. Their family and friends had no idea where they were going. Their wives had no idea where they were going. They would disappear to a secret underground bunker where they would stay during the day. And then at night, they would come up and destroy ammo and fuel dumps, railway lines, airfields, assassinate German officers, assassinate British collaborators, anything that would slow down the German advance and give the British regulars a chance to reform and counter-attack. And they would be utterly brutal and utterly efficient in the execution of the defence of

this country. It goes against so much of what we think of Britain in 1940. This was dirty, horrible guerrilla fighting. They were, we might talk about it later, but they were given huge amounts of weapons, but their main weapons were silent weapons. So Fairbairn Sykes knives or knob crees or anything like that, anything that would allow them entry into the thing that they wanted to blow up. So they could get rid of a sentry silently, probably dismember his body to scare his comrades, blow up the thing they wanted to blow up and get away. Because they only had two weeks, they couldn't afford to get into a running battle with the Germans because that would shorten the amount of time for them to be effective.

So silent, dirty fighting. And do we know where all these bunkers, this infrastructure of resistance would have been all around the country? So the auxiliary units are almost all in coastal counties because they're anti-invasion. They're not long-term resistance. So they're from the Orkneys down the east coast of Scotland, northeast coast of England, southeast corner, south coast,

southwest and south Wales. There's nothing on the west side and there's nothing interior apart from Worcestershire and Herefordshire. Patrols are made up of six to eight men and there were about six and a half thousand men joined between 1940 and stand down in November 1944. And where did they tend to be, these little hideouts? The hideout? Well, they were called hideouts initially, and then that was thought to be too negative.

So they were called operational bases. And these tended to be five to ten miles inland, so they weren't caught up in any kind of initial wave of invasion. And they are just the most remarkable structures. The army was meant to come around at the end of the war and blow all these places up but because at the end of the war the auxiliary units just disappeared back to their normal lives, they'd all signed the official secrets act, these things couldn't be found so there's lots of them, lots and lots of them that haven't been found that are still waiting to be discovered. We're going to go and look for some

of them. I've got a map of the new forest forest here let's have a weatherproof obviously that's why it sounds plasticky so here's beulie and we're at the heart really of this vast new forest it's a new forest because william the conqueror established it as a raw hunting ground so it's only a thousand years old so it's reasonably new and it's been protected more or less over the generations it's still a big patch of almost wilderness really and right in the heart of the very busy part of southern england and so if any it is the kind of place where you think some of these might have survived because there are big patches of heathland and woodland which not much development has occurred yeah not much development and also christian as mark was saying earlier airfields are military infrastructure so you know lots of big manor houses where germans were likely to take as hqs

and they were they were targets as well. So auxiliary units were set up in areas where they were key targets. So a main road, railway, manor house, airfield. Something that they could hit immediately that would cause damage. What's your gut telling you guys? We've got the map here. We can go anywhere. We can trespass.

I can ask for forgiveness rather than ask permission. My gut is there's definitely one in this area. That's quite a big handspan. So for listeners at home, he's just pointed to about 20 square miles apart. It's like, well, that's the expertise we're looking for here, buddy. It's not exactly Indiana Jones, is it? We're digging in the wrong place.

Okay, so we've got a big patch of heath and some woodland here just to the west of Bewley. Well, what's the best thing next, chaps? Shall we go and have a look? Let's go and have a wander, shall we? See if we can fall down a hole. We're entering the car park is this is this your mate here? Yeah that looks that looks like Harry so I've met Harry a few times out here before

um he's got some great stories and he's got a lot of local knowledge so I'm hoping he'll be able to help us today. All right let's go and see Harry. Hey Harry, nice to meet you. so you're a man of the forest yes yes i've definitely been here all my life well it's not that long of course because you're a young man but how many when you used to explore here as a as a boy at school were you yeah well i used to live in sway which is the village over and so harry when you were exploring the forest as a gangster, what kind of things would you find in this area?

Down in Brockenhurst we were finding trenching tools in the river, we'd find mess tins in the river. Over there we found a plane crash. And that's not surprising Mark because this was so militarised this area. Exactly, and actually within a three mile radius of all the aircraft coming out of Bewley Airfield, 119 pilots lost their lives flying out of Bewley, 39% were actually killed in a three mile radius. So there's loads of crash sites around here, it's incredible. Loads of crash sites we got and then in the build up to D-Day there was huge concentrations of men and machines

here as well. But today we're interested in 1940, we're interested in the invasion scale. So do you think, Harry, you've got any little insights? What might be around from that period? What have you got for us? We did find a bunker in the early 90s that was over there and it was underground. Trying to find it again will be a nightmare because it was underground when we found it. How did you find it? I just tripped and I heard something hollow. No. And we sort of scurried around the foliage and the dirt that was on the ground

and there was a manhole cover and we... It's being lucky, dude. What's that doing there? Andrew, is this sound... I mean, it sounds promising. I don't want to get hopes up, but it sounds promising. You can't see this, but it's like a dog with his ears tripped up now. He's sniffing in the direction. Should we stroll over and have a look?

Yeah, let's have a wander. We're coming into this, I love this little red brick cottage. It's in the middle of nowhere, this cottage, isn't it? Totally isolated. Absolutely. It's actually, it belongs to the Forestry Commission, and to this day, forestry keepers live there. And in fact, during the war, the forestry keeper who lived there was an auxiliary unit patrolman. I imagine he's the perfect demographic right he knows the forest better than anybody. He does and he knows how to use firearms as well because they were probably keeping deer down with their guns during that period I would assume but his name was Jack

Humby. He in I think the late 90s he got his memoirs committed to paper and talked about bunkers that they put to the west of Bewley Airfield But frustratingly he never gave a location. Yeah, they never do. So we know the guy he lived in this house We know that he said there were bunkers in this area And now we've got you saying you came across a bunker in the 90s. So I'm feeling kind of confident here I'm an eternal optimist. That's the problem Nothing wrong with being an eternal optimist. There we go.

You can start to see all the foundations of the Nissen huts in here. They're a bit overgrown at the moment, obviously because of the rapid, but there's about 20 of them in here. Wow. So this would have been a really heavily militarized part of the airfield.

And to think there was all this tight security here, and literally 500 meters to the east, we have the bomb store, which would have needed huge security. So I like the idea that Jack Humby was potentially sneaking around at night, building bunkers with 200 heavily armed men literally on the corner by his house.

But he would have been such a, he was a New Forest native. He would have found it so easy to move through this landscape. Yeah, absolutely. And this is a really good example of how, because obviously the invasion never came, so they did lots of training and their training was against allied bases. So they used to really annoy British Army, Air Forces, because they basically proved how inadequate their defences were, because they'd sneak in, write like explosion on a plane, make their way out.

on a plane make their way out. Montgomery when he headed up 12 Corps in Kent, Peter Fleming, the brother of Ian Fleming, the creator James Bond, who was core part of the auxiliary units in 1940, went through into Montgomery's headquarters. They planted time pencil explosives in the flowerpots outside his office and the next morning they went in and said, we got through your defences, we planted explosives in the flowerpots outside his office. And the next morning they went in and said, we got through your defences, we planted explosives in the flowerpots. And Montgomery, in classic Montgomery style, said, there's no way you got through my defences. Just at that moment, the flowerpots started exploding outside his window,

proving the effectiveness of the auction. Yeah, amazing. And his brother Ian Fleming would have written that up in a journal. Correct, yeah, absolutely. Do you know, you've talked to so many of them, sadly now nearly every one of them has passed away. Were they prepared for that kind of suicidal role

in the event of an invasion? Absolutely. How did they get themselves ready and prepare them and their families for it? Their families weren't prepared because they would have just up and left them. At the most vulnerable point for a family, when an invading army is coming to your town or village,

the man of the house or the son would simply disappear. They weren't like bloodthirsty killers, but all of them kind of understood that bigger picture of if the Germans had succeeded in taking Britain, then essentially Western democracy was done because the Atlantic Ocean is a big old space so they understood that the sacrifice they were to make and potentially that their families unknowingly were going to make was absolutely worth it. And how were they recruited? How were these men chosen? Did they

get a tap on the shoulder? Yeah essentially yes. Intelligence officers were sent out the length of the country to these kind of vulnerable coastal counties. They usually had some kind of affiliation with the county. They'd then find a spot which would be good for a patrol to be. So somewhere where there is a good target, so a road, a bridge, a railway line, an airfield. Then find the key man is what they called them in that area. So a farmer or a gamekeeper, someone with a little bit of authority. The type of chaps they were recruiting obviously had joined the LDV because that's what you wanted. And what's the LDV?

Local Defence Volunteers. Right, so that's what we now unfairly call Dad's Army. Correct, yeah. Later called the Home Guard. So they would recruit them, and then it would be up to the patrol leader to recruit his own patrol. So he'd sign the Official Secrets Act, would usually be asked something like, do you want to do something a bit more interesting than the Home Guard?

Yeah. Sign the Official Secrets Act, be told what their role was, and it'd be completely up to that patrol leader to then recruit his patrol. So usually because of the secrecy, it would be friends or family, colleagues, people that he could trust, but also had an intimate understanding of the countryside around them. Which is great but then whole families were recruited. So we got a patrol in Devon where there's three sets of brothers and if you're an invading army and suddenly three sets of brothers have disappeared from one household, suddenly that

whole household is under a spotlight. also the brutality of the orcs units meant that if a patrol member got injured on the way back from an operation and couldn't get back to their operational base their bunker the patrol was obligated to leave them enough ammo to shoot some germans but themselves or to shoot that patrol member because they couldn't allow them to fall into the Germans hands and point out where the operational base was so if you think if they're recruiting family and friends that's a huge ask so very conceivably you'd have to shoot your your brother or your relative or a great friend absolutely and yeah it's utterly ruthless so

Ken Welch who's still with us in Cornwall followed his father one day his father was the patrol leader in Mabe and Ken found out where the operational base was and his father had a choice then when he found out that his son knew whether to bring him into the patrol or to add him to a list of people to be assassinated because he knew where the operational base was so brought him into the patrol but the first job the maid patrol had to do as the germans entered maib was to go up the hill to a cottage that overlooked their operational base and assassinate an elderly couple because the elderly couple saw these guys going in and out oh no every weekend training it's the first job that 16 year old kenwood might have to have done he's gone up the road and Saw these guys going in and out every weekend training. It's the first job that 16 year old Kenwood might have to have done.

He's gone up the road and assassinated this elderly couple. So we think of Britain in 1940, partly through famous TV shows like Dad's Army and other things. We think of us muddling along, gentlemanly, amateurish, decent chaps, standing up against the iron fist of of german totalitarianism but these british men were prepared to meet fire with fire absolutely so the intelligence officer who we just talked about who set up all these patrols in his county would have been a target for one of the patrols because he knew what wherever the operational base was and every member of each patrol. So he was a huge risk if he'd fallen into German's hands.

So he was a target. The local policeman would have been assassinated because he would have to have checked their names. He wouldn't have known they were joining the York's units, but would have to have checked their names and seen these names together. So he would have to have gone. So the first victims, as it were, of the the aux units would have been pretty much innocent British civilians. That's counter-intuitive isn't it? In the event of an invasion start killing a few Brits first and then turn your attention to the invaders. Andy did people ever get cold feet and

think I don't really fancy this? Yeah yeah there are a few examples of where auxiliars joined and then either got too old or the training was too much for them or they didn't like being underground and they left, which meant of course, that they were then added to a list to be assassinated because they knew exactly where the OB was, they knew exactly who was in the patrol. So former members would be added to a list.

There's an example where- That's your former comrades. Absolutely, well, there's an example where a father joined the auxiliary units, left because it was too much for him. Unknowing to him and unknowing to his son, his son joined the same patrol, was recruited to the same patrol. It was only years and years later, in the early 2000s,

that the son realised that he had taken the place of his father and that his father would have been one of the first people to be assassinated. How old is this kind of track that we're walking on now? So 1941 it would have been one of the first people to be assassinated. How old is this kind of track that we're walking on now? So 1941 it would have been built. Yeah, we should say this is a war-time concrete track we're on now. Like so many tracks in the New Forest, we're all used to. Exactly, and this would have been one of the main

free routes into the living area, which we're coming in now. And obviously the actual main airfield was kind of behind us somewhat, but now it's a campsite. Yeah. As a lot of the airfields were turned into when you first actually. Because you have to have some kind of infrastructure in order to bring the materials in to build an operational base. The patrols tended to build their operational bases themselves

to start with, often with not much success, because you have to have a certain amount of expertise in order to breathe underground. But then they brought in the Royal Engineers, but they brought Royal Engineer groups in from different parts of the country. So they'd come in, build two or three, and then disappear just in case the Germans came.

So you didn't want to use a Hampshire Royal Engineer group who were here and could take them straight to the OBs. But they could build an OB in a day. They had one officer and 25 men. Yeah. Wow, that's incredible. And so, yeah, we should talk about it. What are we looking for? I don't even know yet. So it's an underground bunker. How big? What kind of materials? So if it's intact, we're looking for a hatch that's kind of flushed to the floor like a

manhole cover. There's usually then a going down about six foot or so with a ladder. Usually at the end of this there's like some kind of blast wall just in case the Germans had discovered the entrance and dropped a grenade down. There's a blast wall protecting the main chamber. So you've got to go on a sort of jink through into it. Then you're into the main chamber which is essentially as described rather like an Anderson shelter. There'll be bunks and tables so the patrol can rest during the day. Then there would be...

So Anderson shelter, so corrugated iron? Corrugated, elephant iron, yes. I should say actually the way of entering these OBs are absolutely ingenious. So it could be anything that a lot of them are on counterweight systems so you would pull a root or what looked like a root come on but that would lift up the hatch and swing it around there would be uh you could just stamp on it and it'd flip up and swivel around or there's examples where you have a different colored marble depending on which patrol member you were and you'd roll it down what looked like a mouse hole but that would travel down. You have got to be kidding me. And then the patrol down there would notice you. This is not helping my optimism that is incredibly

that is amazing. Yeah it's incredible. So then the main chamber with the bunks and then through to a second smaller chamber where you'd have an Elson chemical toilet. Some of them had kitchens, which aren't ideal for remaining secret, but what they used to do is funnel the chimney up a fake hollow tree, so the smoke dispersed at the top of the tree line. So a German patrol making their way through the forest wouldn't be able to see the smoke. And then there'd be an escape tunnel,

quite long, made out of big drainage pipes. So another way of getting out. Another way of getting out. So if the Germans came in the front through the hatch, the escape tunnel would take that, and the escape tunnel would be disguised as well. So the exit would be disguised as like a badger set. It would come out in the middle of a wall

and you could move the part of the wall away and escape through there. Most patrol members realise if the Germans have found you, you're done. You're in trouble. How many members realise if the Germans have found you, you're done. How many intact ones like this have you found or have been found in the country? Not very many intact ones. I'd say maybe tens that we know of.

But there are so many. We have a good idea of where the patrols were. There are so many where we have no idea where the operational base is. And we found tens of them. Uh-huh.

Intact. Intact, how many do you think there might have been at that peak, just rough ballpark figure? Six or 700, I think. Oh, wow. They're out there, folks. Yeah, game on. Andy, you mentioned it was like a manhole cover

could sometimes be used. I haven't really mentioned this yet, but a couple of years ago, I did find a manhole cover could sometimes be used. I haven't really mentioned this yet, but a couple of years ago, I did find a manhole cover in those woods. What? It didn't really occur to me what it could have been. I mean, the likelihood is it was part of the sewage disposal area for the airfield.

I'd really like you to have a look at it. Yeah, absolutely. If I can find it again. Absolutely. Well, I think that sounds like we should definitely go and look at that. Well, maybe that's the first thing we do then, because it's not, it's about five minutes this way. Yeah, let's have a look. At the end of the war, the army was going to come and find these operational bases and destroy them.

But obviously, by their very nature, they're hard to find. And most of the auxiliaries just went back to their daily lives and didn't say anything. So that's why so many remained about. And we say at the end of the war, the auxiliaries were stood down once it became very clear that Germans weren't going to invade, after D-Day, after the liberation of much of Western Europe in late 1944. So what happened there? Yeah, they were stood down ridiculously late. I mean, the threat of invasion had well and truly diminished, but their role had changed slightly. So they went to anti-raiding roles. During D-Day, patrols from all over the country were sent down to the Isle of Wight to

protect the Isle of Wight from potential counter-attack they guarded the royal family when they went to Balmoral so their role changed but basically because these men were all in reserved occupations they couldn't be called up anyway and their training was as such by kind of 42-43 that there's no point in putting them in the ordinary home guard so they kept them going and actually in 43 someone went round and started to list and this is why we know so many of them the names and addresses of auxiliars which seems on the face of it a strange thing to do for a highly secret organization but actually we think because now you've got 6,500 men highly trained in sabotage and guerrilla warfare, they're a really useful asset.

So keeping an eye on them for any kind of future war, to bring them out of retirement, as it were, is a really sensible thing to do. So those 6,500 men, in late 1944, it was, Thank you very much. Please forget about everything you've done it's over literally they got a letter that said thanks very much for your service there will be no public recognition wow they got a small lapel badge which they had to pay for themselves but of course no one else knew what the lapel badge was or what it represented so ken welch used to wear his to events in the 1950s and he uh he was a hotel somewhere near bristol i think and he was as he said to me he went to go and point percy at the porcelain

and another chap stood next to him who also had the lapel badge on they kind of nodded at each other didn't say anything and just went their separate ways because they both signed the official secret set. And then the bunkers in some cases, the manhole cover was closed and that was it. They were never reopened until today. Absolutely. And there's great stories of, they're extending the road between Exeter and Plymouth and up a big hill called Holden Hill, kind of using a big JCB to dig out. And this is the 1970s. And suddenly this old chap was running up the hill saying you better stop digging.

So literally about to go through the roof of this OB, which was chock-a-block full of explosives. Oh my goodness. Now we've come onto another open bit. Mark's getting very excited, he's leading the way. The problem is I'm seeing a lot of bracken here. This is the enemy, isn't it? There is a lot of bracken.

There's a lot of, you know, this kind of bushy stuff. So hopefully everyone's got long trousers on today. Yeah, well, the ticks are going to have a field day. Where we're heading at the moment is still part of the airfield. It's where I said about that manhawk cover I found. Yeah. So maybe we can uncover that.

It could be a complete red herring, but thankfully we've got Andy here to diagnose the situation. Well, this is what we have to go off. We have to go off rumour, like the information you collected Mark, rumour and myth and so many families were told at the end of the auxiliar's life that oh I was part of a secret resistance force and they were just dismissed by family members as kind of going a little bit a little bit delally in their old age but actually were quite often telling the truth so it's rumour you have to go off. Keep an eye out for snakes. Keep an eye out for snakes okay just add to our list of challenges today. What sort of snakes do we get here Harry? Adders.

Adders, famous New Forest adders. I'll take up the command position at the back of the line if that's... Good choice. I'm going to step to a rattlesnake in the Grand Canyon one. They said whenever you go to the toilet at night, you pee in it, we all slept on the ground, whenever you pee in the river at night in Colorado, whatever you do, always take your headlamp. And I was like, ugh. I'm literally three meters away, it's ridiculous. Got up and then walked a meter,

I went, oh God, turned my headlamp on, and there, rolled up in the footpath, in the warm sand, enjoying the warm sand from the sun of the day before, was a huge diamondback rattlesnake. And I would have just stepped on it, we had no satellite phone, it would have just stepped on it. We had no satellite phone. It would have been really bad. Yeah.

I'm Matt Lewis. And I'm Dr. Eleanor Janaga. And in Gone Medieval, we get into the greatest mysteries. The gobsmacking details and latest groundbreaking research from the greatest millennium in human history. We're talking Vikings, Normans, Kings and Popes, who were rarely the best of friends, murder, rebellions and crusades. Find out who we really were by subscribing to Gone Medieval from History Hit, wherever you get your podcasts. Well, hopefully we won't get anything like that today. Now we're coming down to part of the airfield where it really gets wild and woolly. Okay.

And actually you very rarely see anybody out here apart from people like me and Harry. History heroes is what I call you. But also that's probably the same in 1940 which makes it the perfect place to put a underground bunker potentially. Which way did we come in last time Harry? Was it that way? They're hiding among the trees there, we've got some of the famous New Forest ponies. They just roam wild across this landscape. How does this landscape look? You get a feel don't you as to what works and what doesn't and this definitely works. Okay good. Is there a water source nearby anywhere?

Yes, there is. There's a stream. There we are. I think it's the start of the Limmington River. Trying to get my bearings. Oh, is it the start? Part of the Limmington River. Yeah, start of the Limmington River.

Oh, there's a bit of concrete. Indeed, yeah. I believe that's part of the airfield from when, because they used to, obviously we're down at the bottom of a hill now, going into a gully, would you call it, or a valley? Yeah. You've got the stream there,

so this is where the sewage would end up. Okay. Thankfully, 70 odd years ago now, so. Thank goodness we don't pump sewage into streams anymore. That's right. We've learned that lesson. I mean, yeah, I believe that's part of,

that certainly doesn't look auxiliary to me. No, that's way too above ground. But the manhole cover is this way. Mark is getting faster and faster as he gets closer to the target. There's one around here somewhere. All right well there's a couple of bricks here aren't there. Certainly a big flat area. I covered it over with lead and I can't bloody find it. That's all right let's have a little search. It's good. Oh here it is I've found it. Oh you're in exactly the right place. So as you can see it's not been disturbed for many a year and I don't know it just for me I've

seen it over the years but never really thought much of it. It's something isn't it? Is it a red herring? If we look at these trees I mean these ones certainly in the last few decades they're immediately around us that one definitely not. I mean it's an interesting that this area is bare there's no kind of going in this it does feel unnaturally bare, doesn't it? I've never seen a very specific manhole cover used. The ones that we found are all random. Yeah, they tend to be, but that's not to say at the end of the war they just used something to... Oh, almost seal it?

Yeah. But it's interesting, isn't it? It's a It's a good position kind of midway up a hill. Andy, what about this one? Is that kind of concrete anything of interest? Because there is a hole there, but the tree, Harry says, has been there for years. Yeah, as far as I can remember, that tree has always been there. That's interesting. It's interesting.

It's slight. Your stick can go down quite far. I'd say that there's too much of a lip, probably. These things are absolutely flush to the ground. Much more like that one where there's no lip at all. So we've got some red brick and then we've got a concrete slab that's been cracked by a tree falling on it here.

I mean, that kind of slab is quite often what they use to sling on top of the end of the wall. Right. But I just feel it's just a bit too exposed. Andy, I'm looking into the hole, I can see red brick going vertical shaft, a red brick shaft. I'm wondering if it's all to do with the waterworks of some kind or another. I mean, if I was to put a bet on it, I'd say it's all to do with the sewage part for the airfield. It's just that one manhole just seems so

out of the way of everything else. When we had a little dig round in our youth, it was sort of manhole size. This one? With a slab just slabbed on it. But we could never get close to it because of the tree. And that tree just hasn't rotted because it's still alive. There's usually some giveaway in the ground as to where the bunker is.

You have cameras that you can drop down there, presumably, do you? Yes, yes. It might be worth coming back and doing that. If there are, in the corners of the shaft going down, metal rungs... Oh, I wish I'd brought my jackhammer with me. Do you usually? No, yeah, exactly. It's exciting, isn't it?

Hang on. What are you getting there? Ow, oh, my finger. Come on. I think there might be a bit of rebar, you know? That's what it is. It feels like it's... You see what I mean?

Yeah, that's reinforced concrete. I don't see any metal things, annoyingly. What's down there? Just loads of logs, which is really... I mean, it's about the right size, I'd say. No metal bars. No rungs. No rungs, but there's a strange entrance here.

Do you see? Yeah. I mean, it's the right shape, and the entrance hole is right, so you go down and then... And sort of in. And in. And there is a... I mean, if you can see here...

You've got a mound here. You've got a mound there. Right. It'll be good to go further down and see if you can see any trace of an escape tunnel my only worry is that it's quite prominent right above the surface but if water comes down this hill would that have washed away same here if i was a betting man it's all to do with the sewerage system yeah but i'm not but we never you never know do you that's the problem andy is all this stuff here

doesn't feel, the red brick here doesn't feel right, does it? Fill it in? Yeah, I think so. Moving the rock back. There we go. Well done. Like nothing has ever happened.

We found a World War II feature after all. Exactly. It might be a sewage. I'm really glad we didn't get Andy down for nothing now. At least he can say he's had a little something. At least he can say he's dug his hands into an old sewer. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Not anyone can say that, you know.

Well, if we head towards Baker's Cops, isn't that that area you thought you might have found that one you went in? Harry's leading. Take us, Harry, come on. Got a good feeling. But this is the thing about 1914, Second World War, this stuff is still around us.

You see like a pillbox in the middle of a field in isolation until you go and have a proper look and see it's connected, see where the camouflage is connected, it's just everywhere. How do you wear your hiking boots, Jana? A long time listener to this podcast will be aware of the ongoing saga of producer Marianna's footwear. she wore sandals when we were climbing a big mountain in the Egyptian desert. Now, she's been on the podcast long enough, she is wearing a good sturdy pair of hiking boots. How are you enjoying those, Yammer?

Fashion rating three. That's not what it's about. Practicality 10. Sorry, I just poked you in the eye with a stick. Here you go, it's nice. Problem is this deposition's so dense isn't it? It sounds a bit strange doesn't it? Oh is that a root? That would have been better than endurance no question.

Oh I just thought that might have been a brick there. All right folks I guess we need to call it a day here. Let's do what the Brits always do when life is against them, let's head to the pub. Sounds like a great idea. Let's head but I've got one more thing, I think there's another site we can head to where I think we've got a much better chance of finding something because we know precisely where a bunker is and possibly some aerials going up tree. We might have to knock on a couple of doors.

Andrew. Shall we try that? You bet, let's go. Okay, let's go. Well, let's go to the pub first. Well, of course. You're listening to Dan Snow's History It. We're looking for World War II bunkers. More coming up. Thanks for downloading this episode of Dan Snow's History It. If you don't already, you're going to want to sign up to our subscription service for this podcast, either on Apple or by heading over to History It and taking out a subscription there. And you're going to have to do it because we have an exclusive series in August

unravelling the well-known, the unknown, and the should-be-known stories of great explorers who traversed uncharted territory seeking fame, fortune, riches, or just satisfying their curiosity. From the first Polynesian wayfarers who used the stars to make their way across the dark Pacific, to James Beckworth, a former slave who lived all the drama of the American frontier, and Nellie Bly, the investigative journalist who attempted to traverse the world in less than 80 days.

And finally, we're going to debunk the many myths and legends of Marco Polo. Four episodes are dropping in the exclusive subscription feed. Sign up to get it, folks. £5.99 a month. You can go to the Apple app to sign up, or go to historyhit.com slash subscribe. and latest groundbreaking research from the greatest millennium in human history. We're talking Vikings, Normans, kings and popes,

who were rarely the best of friends, murder, rebellions, and crusades. Find out who we really were by subscribing to Gone Medieval from History Hit wherever you get your podcasts. Well, we've just finished a delicious lunch in this pub, The Fillion. It's a bit of a landmark, The Fillion.

It's been here for, well, I imagine it was here in wartime, wasn't it? I think it's a 15th century pub, actually. I might be wrong, but I'll have to double check. So we can imagine the auxiliaries coming here for a pint every now and then? Yeah. Absolutely. And it's got, you know,

a link to where we're going to next. Right, tell me, where are we going? So we're going just up the road to a place where we know

a special duties branch civilian wires operator lived. Now the special duties branch was very different to the auxiliary units in so much that instead of recruiting youngish men in reserved occupations, they recruited the elderly and mothers and doctors and vicars, people who could stand on their street and watch the German army pass through. And they were really highly trained in recognising insignia and regiments and weapons and numbers and direction of travel and vehicles.

And they'd write all this information down in very basic code on a piece of edible paper, put it in a dead letter drop, say something like as basic as an oxo-cubed tin on a windowsill or loose brick in a churchyard or a tree stump with a revolving top with the message put in a spit tennis ball and rolled down. We think this pub that we're in right now was one of the dead letter drops. Probably the last one before it went up to the civilian wireless operator. How do we know that? Through rumour and myth and village gossip.

Great. And it would end up with a civilian wireless operator in a place like we're going to now. This particular example had his wireless set in a disguised chicken shed. That civilian wireless operator would take the information and pass it on to ATS girls who were in secret bunkers, like the one we're searching for today in the York's units, and they would then pass that information on to local command and GHQ. And the aim is to take away the mystery of the blitzkrieg,

so knowing exactly where the German army were, which direction they were travelling, which regiments it were, how many were there. And then allowing GHQ to make informed decisions about British counter-attack with the regulars, knowing where they're heading to counter-attack them in their strategic place. So as well as these network of stay-behind resistors, you've also got a network of eyes and ears. Essentially spies, yeah, on the invading army. Again, like the Yorkshire units, not for any length of time. This is purely anti-invasion.

So they weren't expected to last any length of time. Yeah, because the wireless sets, for example, can't be moved. They're in set locations. So it's not going to take the German army very long to triangulate and find the source of signals. So again, two week period, probably max to be effective. And so the radio operator would have been in that bunker. There was no coming and going, was there? No need for it? No, correct. So the civilian wireless operator would be in the bunker

passing on information to these ATS women who would, once the Germans entered their area, go to their secret bunker and then remain there until the British Army had relieved them or the Germans had found them, in which case they were to burn their wireless sets and commit suicide with cyanide tablets or shooting themselves but once down there they were in just the most horrific environment there was a chamber where they where they slept and where their wireless sets were

there's a separate chamber where the batteries were stored and when the generator was and the exhaust coming off the generator was just absolutely horrific and we've got you know during training to get used to being under this underground for such a long period of time up to potentially two weeks these ats women they couldn't come back out um so just absolutely awful so why are you feeling confident what do you think you know about this one so part of this group the special duties branch were a number of royal signals men who were attached 15 or so who would go around the country and they would help the ATS girls in their bunkers and the civilian wireless operators with their wireless sets. So putting up aerials in trees or up steeples in churches, monitoring the wireless sets, changing batteries, things like that. And one of them left a vague map of where each of these wireless sets were located.

where each of these wireless sets were located. And then through research and village gossip, and we've managed to kind of pinpoint exactly where this one was in this area, which is just up the road. And so we're about to go and bang on the door. The owners of this house are unsuspecting. Yeah, I mean, potentially, yeah. Right, I'll go and press the buzzer.

So I've pressed the buzzer, I'm not sure if there's anyone at home. Oh, there's a car arriving. Oh, oh. So I've got a very strange, it's a very strange story this. These gentlemen are World War II historians, Andrew and Mark. This is Yana, my producer. We have reason to believe there might be a World War II radio, well, bunker or station on this property, which was originally a chicken coop.

Oh, really? Yeah. We'd love to allow you in and show you around. The very kind people have let us in the property. I mean, this really is strange but anyway Andy has got a tree that he thinks is identified from testimony of previous people that are familiar with the property where there might be an aerial running up. So we're just walking now to the southern edge of the property. We don't think here that means there's a bunker

under the ground do we? No. It was probably in the chicken coop. It would have been in the chicken. So the other example of the chicken coop we've got is in Norfolk where you go into the chicken coop, there'll be actual chickens in there, but the end wall is false and you put your finger in the knot in the wood and that moves it across and inside at the back is a wireless operator. So there would have been a structure like that here but sadly it would have been... Sounds like it's torn down. But it would have been about here like that here, but sadly it would have been... Sounds like it's torn down. But it would have been about, you know, here with the aerial going up the

tree. And it's perfect because we know the pub just up the road was the last dead letter drop, so the message would be dropped there. The last runner in the line would probably use this trackway coming along here and there'd be some kind of dead letter drop here, maybe an ancient bath, where the message would be dropped and then the wireless operator could easily pick it up without being seen and send the message via the area. Shall we try and get round? How far down is the gate? So we've got a very old bit of barbed wire fencing which has actually grown into the bark of this mighty oak tree. So what we're looking for is a little needle in a haystack here. There's a step of a big old tree here. Yeah.

There's wires to this tree that isn't barbed wire. It looks like, look, this isn't barbed wire. This looks more like- Oh, hello. To me, this looks more like electrical or radio wire. That has wire inside it. That is electrical wire. What? I found something. What? Don't be serious. There it is. Oh, my God. Congratulations. Well done, Mark.

You legend, Mark. Andy, why are you so convinced that it might be a wartime era? Well, one, there's no other reason for this wire to be inside a tree. It's insulated, there's wiring inside, it's like electrical cable. It's not barbed wire, it's not wiring for a fence, because it's insulated. It's the kind of wire that you'd see inside electronics, and it's the right color to disguise it down the tree trunk. And it's coming out here. I mean, not a million miles away to where we thought it was. Well, it's actually just one or two trees along. And the fact that it's coming out,

it might be that it went further down, it went further down into underground here, into the chicken shed. We've made the discovery today, Andrew. We have, thank goodness. Well done, lads. Well done. We've found something. That's fantastic, isn't it? Who knew we could get so excited over two bits of wire sticking out of the trees?

Well done, folks. We found quite a lot of interesting stuff, I think, today, to be fair, didn't we? But one definite confirmation of that kind of special activity going on here. When the war came to an end, what happened to these men and women? So the Special Duties branch was stood down in July 1944, the Auxiliaries were stood down in November 1944 and essentially they got the same letter, thanks for your service you're not going to get any public recognition, and they just went back to their day jobs. The Auxiliars went back to being farmers and miners and gamekeepers, the Special Duties branch operatives went back to being mothers, vic and gamekeepers the special duties branch operatives went back to being mothers vicars doctors and didn't tell anyone you know 90 of them went to the grave without telling their family anything of their wartime activity and what they were prepared

to do during war and i bet because there was never an invasion they probably thought well compared to the lads who went abroad and sort of active service there's no point us showing off about it but that doesn't take anything away from their extraordinary bravery and the service they rendered absolutely and you know that's exactly it and because they weren't called upon many of them just saw that they didn't do anything particularly special they signed the official secrets act and that generation took that incredibly seriously and most of them went to the grave without saying anything because of that they also went to the grave without saying anything because they didn't feel like they'd done anything. But also, from an Auxiliar's point of view, they were tasked with taking out members of their local community.

So you're not going to bring that up in the pub in the late 40s, early 50s. That's a bit of an awkward conversation. So they kept quiet about that because they didn't want to be seen as brutal and bloodthirsty. And what's amazing is the Auxiliary units and the Special Duties people, they could have been serving metres apart. They didn't know each other existed. Yeah, they both signed the official secrets act and they were different parts of the same pie but they they had no idea about each other except there's one fantastic example where that wasn't the case and Auxilia was patrolling his local woods, found a

hatch to what he recognized as a as an operational base but far too close to his own operational base to be another auxiliary patrol. He found his way into the bunker, went down the steps and at the bottom of the steps was an ATS girl pointing a revolver at his head because it was a special duties branch ATS bunker. All she knew was a heavily armed chap in denim had entered her bunker. All he knew was this woman seems to be sending messages via wireless sets. They agreed not to kill each other, thank goodness, because they went on and got married. They couldn't tell anyone how they met because they both signed the Official Secrets Act. They had a child and he now marches past the centre staff with us every year to represent

both arms of the Auxiliary Unit. An amazing story. Thank you gentlemen, that was an outstanding day. How did you enjoy your search of the New Forest? Cracking wasn't it? Yeah, I mean... There's so much to see. I've had an amazing time, so thanks for coming down. It feels like we've pulled on a few threads that we need to see where they lead as well. I think there's definitely going to be a postscript or two here.

Yeah, absolutely. you